[Andrew999]

I'm currently working my way through the Lemmy Caution and Slim Callaghan books by Peter Cheyney. They are available for free in the public domain in Australia and Canada (everywhere else from Jan 1st 2022) from the heroic Roy Glashan:

http://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/PeterCheyney/PeterCheyney.html

Once you get past the fact that they are written in an odd American gangster style by a man who rarely left Soho in London, they are enormous fun.

Slim is my favourite of the two (though quite frankly, they are interchangeable). There were a couple of British movies (one starred Michael Rennie) that appear to be lost, a German TV series in the sixties and three pretty good French movies in the fifties starring British actor Tony Wright.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x168909

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x168j4e

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x168d3v

Lemmy Caution is of course better known in the movies through the laconic Eddie Constantine. Meanwhile, I found this comic book adaptation of Lemmy's first novel - scroll down the page to read the strip in its entirety

http://lectraymond.forumactif.com/t1648-lemmy-caution-de-peter-cheyney-en-bd

I wondered if anyone knew of any more?

[The Australian Panther]

I read all the Lemmy Cautions back in the late 60's. I enjoyed them because of the slang, not in spite of it.
I have always been a lover of creative language. It was always obvious that the language came out of Cheyney's head and was not genuine. Made it fun tho!
At the time tho, I didn't read anything else of his, but since them I have found Slim Callaghan - posted a link to the 50s excellent Slim Callaghan movie earlier this year - and the excellent 'Dark' series - about espionage in WWII.
All great stuff. Cheyney was another of those who left us far too young.

Cheers!       

[crashryan]

Michael Rennie as Slim Callaghan? This I'd like to see. It's hard for me to picture Rennie as anybody named "Slim." He always struck me as classy, which Slim Callaghan definitely ain't. My introduction to Rennie was in a (presumably British) TV series, The Third Man, featuring a respectable version the Harry Lime character, and co-starring the wonderful Jonathan Harris (which tickled my brother John Harris). The series showed on Canadian TV when I was in junior high school. Later I admired Rennie as Klaatu, the classy alien. Did you ever see the episode of Perry Mason in which Rennie guest starred? It was one of several episodes shot when Raymond Burr out having surgery. Other stand-ins were Bette Davis(!), Hugh O'Brian, Walter Pidgeon (recently returned from Altair-4), and Mike Connors. The quality of the stories varied but it was great fun seeing the guest actors. As for Rennie? Class, class all the way.

[Andrew999]

The Rennie movie was Uneasy Terms (1948)

I've never seen it but apparently it's available through Google Play and other sources. In the States, there's a $10 DVD available.

The other British movie (which again I haven't seen) was Meet Mr Callaghan (1954). No Michael Rennie but it does have Belinda Lee in it - so I would definitely like to see that sometime. There is a British DVD available from the usual sources.

The German TV series was Slim Callaghan Grief Ein (Slim Callaghan Investigates) (1964) which I haven't seen - not does there appear to be a DVD anywhere.

[The Australian Panther]

The film I referred to was not the Michael Rennie one. It's on Youtube, but I can't find it at present.
I did post a link to it a couple of months ago.
But!
I have just found this Lemmy Caution french film.
L'agente Lemmy Caution in PASSAPORTO FALSO | Film Completo |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbN6ArgyYDQ&list=PLwygboCFkeeDPyuibughZjLx68M4eP0R8&index=4

Haven't watched it, so can't comment.

cheers!